Up to Something: Part I

A friend recently scolded me for 'making' her follow my blog, but then my not having posted anything since she did. True. I've been bad. but busy. sooooooo...

What have I been doing?

Let's start where I left off by looking at those polaroids I promised in my last post. It was exciting to finally push the capture button on my vintage SX-70 (see previous post) and have something actually pop out the front. The film I got from The Impossible Project, "TZ-Artistic, Paul Giambarba Edition" for Polaroid Type SX-70. I must say, I'm a little disappointed in the quality. Though occasionally the overexposed, unsaturated aesthetic works -- it made getting a good shot difficult. Here's the best I've got so far:

 for comparison's sake, here's a photoshop enhanced version (though i didn't remove the linear artifact that runs through the middle. these lines showed up on several prints, though not all):

I happened to take this camera with me to Ireland, as well as my shiny new Sony NEX-5 (love love love - it has interchangeable lenses, fits in my purse, lightweight & is almost as good as a pro dslr) - how's that for diametric opposites? While riding the train to Dublin, I got antsy waiting for some sheep to show up on the endless farm lands that whooshed past us & decided to experiment a bit. The following were shot holding my NEX-5 in my right hand, pointing it through the viewfinder on my polaroid which I held in my left hand, pressed up to the train's window glass.... I love the painterly quality that these images have in person (don't know if it is obvious in these lower resolution images here) - but I'm excited about this series and am looking forward to taking my time getting good (BIG) prints of them eventually:

cheers,

me

ps- be back w/ more of what I've been doing soon... (next up: Ireland & a short story)

Oh The Impossibilities... or, Dusting Off the Old Polaroid SX-70

I purchased this beautiful Polaroid SX-70 over a decade ago, thinking that one day I'd search out some film for it. Which I never did. And then Polaroid went out of business. grrrr & double grrrr

October 2008, Enter: The Impossible Project

From what I can gather, a couple of artist/photographers got together and bought a Polaroid plant & then made the impossible happen - they started producing polaroid film. And not just the standard 600 kind either - no no, they started with film for the SX-70 (produced from 1972-1981).

I bought the TZ ARTISTIC Paul GIAMBARBA edition (EXPIRED) for $24.50
I only get 8 shots.
That's over 3 bucks a pop.
But I don't care, in fact
I get something even better...
I finally {cue angels singing} get to pull my Polaroid SX-70 off of the mantlepiece, and for the first time in our relationship - get to see it for more than just a pretty thing.... I get to push it's freakin buttons... oh yeah baby... and it's love from first click.... I'll post images soon ;)

Now go shop for your own Impossibilities here:
http://www.the-impossible-project.com/

DIY Digital Camera Diffuser

I recently volunteered to take photos for an event and would've preferred to use my nice film camera with a pro flash, but film would've been cost prohibitive, so I decided to take my little digital camera. My Fujifilm FinePix S700 has been a handy digital camera for family photos and whatnot; but is a basic consumer level camera with a harsh built-in flash -- which I try not to ever use. The event was at night, indoors in an art gallery with loads of artificial lighting - there were large windows in the front, but one can never count on sunlight in Seattle - so I knew I'd have to use the flash. ack. So after some quick internet research, and only an hour until the event (!), I came up with this solution...

If your camera has a small enough flash, a simple solution is a white/translucent film canister. For larger flashes, I've seen people use rubbing alcohol bottles.

Simply hold the canister up to your flash, trace the shape with a fine point sharpie onto the canister, use an exacto knife to cut out a hole snug enough to just slide over your flash; this plastic was thin and easy to cut.

This amount of diffusion may be fine for some situations, but I found that there was still too much contrast & glare, so I tried adding a sheet or two of plain printer paper inside the canister -- just enough to cover the inside surface, but not over the cut hole.

Then I tested the camera without the diffuser, with it & with one and two pieces of paper inside:

I did have some ambient natural light, but very little since it's a cloudy day (go figure), and no artificial light. I think I'd be fine using just one piece of paper, and it'll probably depend on whatever the lighting conditions are -- but I think it's a nice little trick for basic shooting needs. Plus the pop-off lid makes it really easy to change how much paper is in the canister ;)

Unfortunately for the event I shot (Seattle's Etsy Craft Party), I hadn't yet discovered the paper trick, and shot with just the canister - so I ended up with more glare & harsh shadows than I wanted, but it turned out okay, especially with some photoshop tweaking... here's a shot from the night featuring artwork by Zoe Williams:

see the rest of the photos here


Happy Shooting!!

New Song Sunday - Gypsy Love

Gypsy punk band Gorgol Bordella's latest album Transcontinental Hustle is a frantic, verging on chaotic, but ultimately passionate explosion of sound. It's so rich, that I find it difficult to listen to the whole thing in one setting; but they are absolutely top of my 'I gotta see this band live' list. Here's one of the catchier tunes from the album:

...and for your visual pleasure, this "Gypsy" treasury featuring yours truly and other talented etsians (curated by westbournegrove):

New Song Sunday - Don't Touch

'liminality' by tracy yarkoni

"The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. ..." (wikipedia)

Shot with Canon AE-1 on 35mm film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. These three shots were long exposures (a few seconds each) which I overlapped in Photoshop, matching up the lines of the escalators. The ghostly bodies appear together from these three separate layers so that they become intertwined. It is difficult to know where one body begins and the other ends. A ghostly limb here, a disembodied face there, solitary people now standing intimately close to one another...


With that in mind, and for the sake of irony, here's the song:

New Song Sunday - NYC Gone Gone

This week is the opening of the Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Triennial: Why Design Now?

And my super-amazing, awe-inspiring, big sis and artiste extraordinaire Rachel Wright, has a piece in it - yeah, she rocks. Sigh, I'll be able to say "I knew her when..." AND I get to be her arm candy in New York City next week for the reception. Life is good ;)

Rachel Wright & Tracy Yarkoni, 

Champs Elysees Paris April 2001, photograph by Rachel Wright

Let the preparations begin, here's Conor Oberst with "NYC-Gone Gone":


Here is Rachel's piece in the exhibit:

About this design: "I based it on the traditional Maori facial tattoos. These gentlemen would “sign” documents and contracts by drawing their unique facial tattoo instead of signing their names." -Rachel Wright


More Wright designs:

Stories of Art, Part II

Part I of my posts on James Elkins’ Stories of Art begged the questions:

Is the Story of Art History a multicultural one? Or is it an inherently Western Story?

Why does it matter {how the Story of Art is told} anyway?

the pale blue dot, from NASA's website

Before I can begin to answer these questions, I must look back at where the discipline of Art History began. Weird to think that at some point it was non-existant, no? In my world, it’s as essential as Math or English. But as far as the universe is concerned, Art History is barely a blip on the radar. Which reminds me, have you ever seen the famous “pale blue dot” photo of the earth taken by Voyager 1 as it exited our solar system? The earth appears as a single pale blue pixel lost in the vastness of space – as though it were a blemish on an otherwise dark spectral canvas that begs to be photoshopped out. That’s the kind of perspective I’m talking about ;)

New Song Sunday - A D@#n Good Goodbye

From the John Butler Trio (an Australian band whose albums have gone platinum down under) here is "Don't Wanna See Your Face No More"...

Finding Lost Treasure

Etsy is literally a treasure trove of handmade and vintage goods. The sellers number in the hundreds of thousands. How can one not feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of browsing through so many goodies?

Welcome 'Treasury East', a permanent collection of member curated galleries;  each gallery featuring 16 items. {This is etsy's latest improvement to their former treasuries 'main' and 'west' - where galleries expired after two to three days and only featured 12 items.}

Here's one by 'Kathleencavalaro', featuring yours truly, called "Not Your Typical Mother's Day":

Strolling through the list of tempting titles also became less of a chore with the addition of the first three photos from the gallery to give you an idea of the things you'll find inside. This is harder to say then it is to see, come take a look for yourself, but don't blame me if you get hooked on hunting for treasure:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/

New Song Sunday - "The Do" Over

from the family photo album, my big sis & a boy, circa 1972

How can I convince you how great this band is - by posting another of their songs, of course.

"The Do" lamenting a lost, yet useless, lover: